Snow Flower and the Secret Fan

About this Book

Book Summary

A brilliantly realistic journey back to an era of Chinese history that is as deeply moving as it is sorrowful, this lyrical and emotionally charged novel delves into one of the most mysterious of human relationships: female friendship.

Lily is haunted
by memories  of who she once was, and of a person, long gone, who defined her
existence. She has nothing but time now, as she recounts the tale of Snow
Flower, and asks the gods for forgiveness.

In nineteenth-century China, when wives and daughters were foot-bound and lived
in almost total seclusion, the women in one remote Hunan county developed their
own secret code for communication: nu shu ("women's writing"). Some girls were
paired with laotongs, "old sames," in emotional matches that lasted throughout
their lives. They painted letters on fans, embroidered messages on
handkerchiefs, and composed stories, thereby reaching out of their isolation to
share their hopes, dreams, and accomplishments.

With the arrival of a silk fan on which Snow Flower has composed for Lily a poem
of introduction in nu shu, their friendship is sealed and they become "old sames"
at the tender age of seven. As the years pass, through famine and rebellion,
they reflect upon their arranged marriages, loneliness, and the joys and
tragedies of motherhood. The two find solace, developing a bond that keeps their
spirits alive. But when a misunderstanding arises, their lifelong friendship
suddenly threatens to tear apart.

Snow Flower and the Secret Fan is a brilliantly realistic journey back to an era
of Chinese history that is as deeply moving as it is sorrowful. With the period
detail and deep resonance of Memoirs of a Geisha, this lyrical and emotionally
charged novel delves into one of the most mysterious of human relationships:
female friendship.

Chapter 1
Milk Years

My name is Lily. I came into this world on the fifth day of the six month of
the third year of Emperor Daoguang's reign. Puwei, my home village, is in
Yongming County, the county of Everlasting Brightness. Most people who live here
are descended from the Yao ethnic tribe. From the storytellers who visited Puwei
when I was a girl, I learned that the Yao first arrived in this area twelve
hundred years ago during the Tang dynasty, but most families came a century
later, when they fled the Mongol armies who invaded the north. Although the
people of our region have never been rich, we have rarely been so poor that
women had to work in the fields.

We were members of the Yi family line, one of the original Yao clans and the
most common in the district. My father and uncle leased seven mou of land from a
rich landowner who lived in the far west of the province. They cultivated that
land with rice, cotton, taro, and kitchen crops. My family ...

Reviews

Media Reviews

Starred Review. As both a suspenseful and poignant story and an absorbing historical chronicle, this novel has bestseller potential and should become a reading group favorite as well.

Library Journal - Beth E Anderson

See's meticulous research and exquisite language deliver a story that is haunting, powerful, and, at times, almost too painful to bear. Highly recommended.

Kirkus Reviews

Taut and vibrant, the story offers a delicately painted view of a sequestered world and provides a richly textured account of how women might understand their own lives. A keenly imagined journey into the women's quarters.

Amy Tan
Lisa See has written her best book yet. Snow Flower and the Secret Fan is achingly beautiful, a marvel of imagination of a real and secret world that has only recently disappeared. It is a story so mesmerizing the pages float away and the story remains clearly before us from beginning to end.

Arthur Golden, author of Memoirs of a Geisha
Only the best novelists can do what Lisa See has done, to bring to life not only a character but an entire culture, and a sensibility so strikingly different from our own. This is an engrossing and completely convincing portrayal of a woman shaped by suffering forced upon her from her earliest years, and of the friendship that helps her to survive.

Reader Reviews

Betty Taylor

Such Beautiful Writing... I had put off reading any of Lisa See's books for a long time. I love reading about the Chinese culture but did not like any of Amy Tan's books. But I finally gave in and started reading Snow Flower. I was immediately grabbed by the beautiful writing... Read More

Catherine Gray

THE BEAUTY OF MEMORIES AND LOVE The first time I read this book " Snow Flower and the secret Fan" It brings me right into China. I could feel the pain of the women in isolation in the Women's Chamber. Lily a brave and wonderful woman of authority, so descriptive in ... Read More

kim

new favorite book What an incredible story. I couldn't put it down. I enjoyed learning about the Chinese culture in a way that made you feel you were actually there. It is a wonderful book about family relations, but most of all deep long-lasting friendships between... Read More

A Bookshelf Monstrosity

Arranged marriages, loss, and motherhood in nineteenth-century China I can't believe I waited so long to read this book. Shame on me. This book was wonderful, lyrical, entertaining - all the makings of a wonderful novel. I was transported to 19th century China as I read the words of Lily and her experiences with ... Read More

Beyond the Book

The practice of foot binding began around 970 BC.
Bound feet were described as 'lily feet' because they were
considered so beautiful and were symbolic of gentility
and high-class.

The process began for a girl between 3 and 11 years. The
four small toes were broken and turned under and bound,
then the arches were broken so the foot could be pulled
straight with the leg. Overtime the feet would shrink so
they could fit in 'lotus shoes' 3 inches long. In the
1600s the ...

A sweeping, evocative epic of two women's intertwined fates and their search for identity, that moves from the lavish parlors of Shanghai courtesans to the fog-shrouded mountains of a remote Chinese village.

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